July 2008 Archives

The California Department of Motor Vehicles, infamous for long lines, has cut its wait time in half to get a driver's license. AP in the Daily News.

A big part of the reason is its hiring of part-time employees. Of 9,017 DMV employees statewide, 1,345 - or 15 percent - could be gone by Friday after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs an executive order to deal with the state's fiscal crisis.

The department also has 751 contractors who could be terminated. And that won't be good news for customers, said Amber Carlson, 25, who would lose her $14.75-an-hour part- time job answering phones and processing paperwork at the DMV's Sacramento headquarters.

Immigration officials next week will launch a voluntary deportation campaign in five U.S. cities, asking illegal immigrants to turn themselves in rather than face the possibility of being rounded up at home or work.Rachel Uranga in the Daily News.

While immigrant rights defenders call the 18-day program absurd and unlikely to work, ICE officials say it is designed to ease the pain of family separation.

"This helps address concerns raised by community groups and others that (deportations) unnecessarily disrupt families," said Richard Rocha, an ICE spokesman. "It can give parents and those who have been ordered removed to have a greater voice in their removal."

Angelenos who use more power during the summer will pay higher prices under a new tiered-rate system adopted by the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday that also gives San Fernando Valley residents a little break.Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

The new system will take effect in July 2009 and will include lower rates for residents in hotter areas of the city, including most of the San Fernando Valley.

The goal is to encourage residents to reduce their power use from June through September, when demand strains the city's electrical system.

Forget Las Vegas or the Grand Canyon, for his second vacation in three years, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa decided to go all out. He's fly fishing in Iceland with his son and some friends.

Fortunately for the media-savvy mayor, he was stopped in London on his way to Iceland Tuesday when L.A. was rattled by a magnitude 5.4 quake, and he was able to appear on CNN to speak about the temblor.

Not being an angler, I didn't know Iceland is a hot spot for fly fishing. But apparently the country has a four-month fly fishing season where folks can stand in glacial rivers to hook salmon, char and trout. It looks like quite a peaceful retreat and not a bad way for the mayor to spend a week away from the office.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled budget programming with some birthday news: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger turns 61 today. Sacramento Bee Capitol Alert.
And, as politicians are wont to do, Schwarzenegger is using his birthday as a fundraising tool.
On Tuesday night, the governor was in Los Angeles for a "birthday" fundraiser at the home of wealthy developer Rick Caruso.
That's the same Caruso whose name has been batted around as a potential 2009 challenger to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
The governor has yet another "birthday" fundraiser, slated for August 12, in Rancho Santa Fe.

Despite concerns that higher trash fees will burden already struggling homeowners, the Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to hike residential refuse-collection charges by 40 percent. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

The new fees will take effect Sept. 1 and mean that residents of a single-family house will pay $36.32 per month for trash pickup, up from $26. Residents of an apartment in a small complex served by the city will pay $24.33 a month.

The council voted 11-1 for the hike. West Valley Councilman Dennis Zine dissented.

If Los Angeles Unified officials decide Thursday to place a $7 billion bond on the fall ballot, they are expected to campaign on a plan to build small schools of 500 students or less. George Sanchez in the Daily News.

But while the district has been talking up the need for smaller schools for at least five years, it has continued to build mammoth campuses to warehouse thousands of students.

District officials defend their construction program, saying they may be developing large school sites, but they are trying to break them down into several mini-schools on each campus.

And some say it's too late and costly to redesign already-built or under-construction mega-schools, even though they acknowledge the LAUSD should have never gotten to the place it finds itself now.

"We have just built all these schools. We can't deconstruct them," said LAUSD Board of Education member Yolie Flores Aguilar.

"If I had my dr

Home values plunged by nearly a quarter-million dollars in the San Fernando Valley during June as a record number of foreclosures flooded the market and sales continued to lag, a trade group said Tuesday.Gregory J. Wilcox in the Daily News.

The median resale house price tumbled 34 percent, to $431,000 - a loss of $224,000 from the record high price of $655,000 the previous June, said the Southland Regional Association of Realtors.

The price fell 4 percent, or $19,000, from May, and is now nearing the $425,000 median recorded in February 2004.

In a landmark approach to fighting obesity, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday approved a measure banning new, stand-alone fast-food restaurants in South Los Angeles.
Daily News.
Led by Councilwoman Jan Perry, the council voted 12-0 to impose the limitations for a 32-square-mile area including West Adams, Baldwin Hills and Leimert Park as well as adjacent parts of South and Southeast Los Angeles.

The ban will not affect restaurants already in the area or proposed as part of shopping malls.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials are considering asking voters to approve a $7 billion bond measure in November, more than twice as big as previously discussed and nearly half of it set aside for unspecified future projects. George Sanchez in the Daily News.

LAUSD's board is set to vote Thursday on whether to support the bond measure, which allocates more than $3.2 billion for future "repair and safety," "modernization, repair and technology," "green technology" and to "attract, retain and graduate more students," according to a draft summary of the bond funding distribution.

Meanwhile, district and charter officials are wrangling over exactly how much charter schools would get from the bond measure and whether the charters would own any properties and schools that are developed with the funds.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Monday proposed hiring six contractors to manage gang-prevention programs in the city's hardest-hit areas - a move designed to reinvent L.A.'s gang strategy, but one sure to upset nonprofits that had relied on city contracts for years. Kerry Cvanaugh in the Daily News.

The annual $500,000 contracts would be the first awarded since the mayor announced in April that he would end the L.A. Bridges gang-prevention program for lack of accountability and oversight.

Instead, the mayor pledged to reallocate the money to new contractors through a competitive bidding process that he says better ensures that the money leads to reduced gang membership.

A coalition of local government, transportation and labor leaders on Monday urged state lawmakers to abandon a rumored plan to raid local coffers to help address California's $15.2 billion budget deficit. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

Local officials fear that state legislators are considering allowing the state to use $1.1 billion set aside for transportation projects and at least $1.4 billion in funds that are supposed to go to local governments under Proposition 1A.

Los Angeles County would lose an estimated $128 million to $144 million in local government funds, and cities throughout the county would lose $250 million in funding designed to maintain local streets and roads.

A residential building boom is exploding near Northridge Fashion Square, where the construction of nearly 2,000 apartments and condos is expected to worsen traffic congestion and result in the demolition of a venerable Kmart store. Gregory J. Wilcox in the Daily News.

Three of the projects are mixed use, with residential units built atop retail space. The fourth is a senior-citizens complex that includes a wing for assisted-living tenants.

Developers of the four complexes say they're proceeding despite the nationwide slump in home construction, with the projects' proximity to restaurants and the regional mall giving them the impetus to build.

"Obviously, the economy is affecting construction right now. But the way we look at it is we hope to catch it back on the upswing when we open," said Ed McCoy, vice president of Fairfield Residential LLC, which is building two of the projects.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday postponed his plan to eliminate about 22,000 temporary, part-time and contract workers and impose a hiring freeze because of the state budget impasse. AP in the Daily News.

As more than 100 union workers picketed outside the state Capitol, the governor opted not to sign an order to implement the cuts immediately.

Instead, he's hoping legislative leaders are making progress on the overdue state budget, which has a $15.2 billion shortfall.

The California Republican Party today released its final list of delegates and alternaties to its convention in Minnesota.
The group will be led by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and was described as a cross-section of California Republicans.
Bill Jones, who is chairman of the state's convention, said those selected represent a broad array of activists, elected official and community leaders.
"I am proud to stand as the leader of this fine delegation," Jone said. "As the largest delegation at the GOP Convention, California leads the way to a brighter future in America. California has produced two Presidents in the past, and I know that we are unified in support of my friend and colleague, Senator John McCain."
The full list of delegates is available at the party's website.

Faced with the potential loss of a telephone users' tax worth $65 million a year, Los Angeles County supervisors are asking voters to approve a new measure in November that would preserve the tax at a lower rate - but also expand it to include new technologies.Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

Supervisors voted unanimously last week to place the measure on the Nov. 4 ballot, reducing the tax individuals and businesses pay on phones, natural gas and electricity from 5 percent to 41/2 percent in unincorporated areas, affecting more than 1 million people.

But the measure also would expand the types of communications that could be taxed, including text messaging on cell phones, paging, conference calls and other new technologies.

For more than a decade, the pile of rubble off Paxton Street has been an ugly reminder of Pacoima's troubles. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

The site once was the proud location of the Price Pfister foundry, producing millions of faucets and keeping hundreds of workers in a comfortable middle-class lifestyle.

But in 1997 the company moved its operations to Mexico, taking some of the last good-paying manufacturing jobs in the area and leaving behind massive contamination.

Now, however, residents have renamed the land Pacoima Plaza and are hoping to reclaim at least some of the lost jobs - this time as cashiers, stockers and clerks in national big-box chain stores.

TIPOFFS: Of plastic bags and polls.

Even as Los Angeles residents and city employees are encouraged to curb their driving habits, many of the city's top elected officials are still driving SUVs or large sedans that get less than 25 miles per gallon and cost taxpayers thousands of dollars a year to keep on the road.Beth Barrett in the Daily News.

Among the biggest spenders is West Valley Councilman Dennis Zine, who has one of the longest commutes to downtown council chambers and drives his gas-guzzling 2005 Mercury Mountaineer an average 80 miles a day.

At 15 miles to the gallon, that's about $8,000 a year at the current average of $4.19 per gallon from city government's own fleet-fueling pumps.

The pricey cars and high gas use come even as Los Angeles grapples with an economic downturn that has led to budget shortfalls and fee hikes on taxpayers for everything from golf to parking.

The Screen Actors Guild National Board voted unanimously today to reaffirm the importance in contract negotiations with producers and studios. Daily News.

The actors union insists it is still negotiating with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, but no meetings have been scheduled since last week and AMPTP officials have said negotiations ended with their final offer made June 30, when the contract expired.

SAG leaders met with their national board today for the first time since the actors union's contract with producers expired.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa pulled out as keynote speaker for a gay rights group's fundraising event scheduled for Saturday night following intense lobbying from transgender activists angry over the group's stand on a federal gay rights bill.AP in the Daily News.

Villaraigosa was scheduled to headline the Human Rights Campaign dinner scheduled for Saturday night in San Francisco. San Francisco city officials and many prominent gay rights leaders already had agreed not to attend the event, which has been billed as a fundraiser to help defeat a November ballot measure that would again ban same-sex marriage in California.

The Human Rights Campaign is one of the nation's most prominent gay rights organizations and the Washington-based group already has given over $500,000 to defeat the same-sex marriage measure. But many transgender activists and their allies have been angry at the group since the fall, when its leaders agreed to support a federal job discrimination ban that protected gays, lesbians and bisexuals - but not transgender people.

After sparring for hours about who might get shortchanged over 29 proposed transportation projects across L.A. County, the Metro board approved plans Thursday to put a half-percent sales tax hike on the November ballot. Sue Doyle in the Daily News.

Forecasted to generate up to $40 billion over 30 years, the tax could help pay for a $1 billion high-speed transit line along the 405 Freeway from the San Fernando Valley to the Westside.

It also calls for $200 million to link the Green Line to Los Angeles International Airport and $4.2 billion to build the highly touted "subway to the sea" from downtown to as far as Westwood.

Foreclosures across the San Fernando Valley shattered records for the second quarter, soaring 230 percent from a year earlier as the housing crisis intensified, a research center said Thursday. Gregory J. Wilcox in the Daily News.

A total of 2,084 Valley families lost their homes from April to June after defaulting on their loans, up from 632 households a year earlier, according to the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center at California State University, Northridge.

The previous second-quarter record of 1,818 foreclosures was set in 1996, amid another real-estate market collapse.

The dismal housing situation was reflected throughout Los Angeles County, where 3,676 homes were lost - nearly 260 percent higher than in the second quarter of 2007.

Valley foreclosures increased each month during the quarter, hitting 803 in June - a 242 percent annual increase. And with a glut of bank-owned homes on the market, the median home price plummeted 28 percent from a year earlier.

Center Director Daniel B

Capping the highest-profile case to come out of City Hall "pay-to-play" corruption investigations, Leland Wong was convicted Thursday on more than a dozen felony charges for taking $100,000 from a company doing business with the city of Los Angeles. Beth Barrett in the Daily News.

Wong, 51, a former commissioner on the city's airport, harbor and water and power panels , was found guilty of 14 felony charges, including one count of bribery, two counts of conflict of interest, one count of perjury, seven counts of theft by embezzlement and three counts of filing false tax returns.

But the jury also acquitted Wong on six other counts of theft by embezzlement and one count of conflict of interest.

Jurors deliberated for only one day before returning their verdict.

As his family gathered in the courtroom, Wong sat on the edge of his seat to hear the verdict.

As the clerk finis

The number of hate crimes in Los Angeles County soared by 28 percent last year to the highest level in five years, with the largest number of incidents in the San Fernando Valley, officials said Thursday. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

The increase - to more than 760 - comes even as the Sheriff's Department and Los Angeles Police Department reported a 5percent to 6 percent reduction in overall crime.

But analysts said hate crimes in the county - up from 594 a year earlier - are fueled by an increase in white-supremacist gangs in the region, the growing popularity of "white power" music, gang rivalries and tensions between African-Americans and Latinos.

Community clinic operators in the San Fernando Valley and countywide say they will be forced to turn away new patients, cut services and limit hours if state payments don't come through before the end of the summer. Susan Abram in the Daily News.

The failure of state lawmakers to pass a budget means the California Department of Health Care Services had to halt Medi-Cal payments Thursday to thousands of clinics statewide.

Those in Los Angeles County lose an estimated $385 a minute at a time when more people are turning to smaller health facilities, according to the Community Clinic Association.

"We call this the perfect storm because there is rising demand (in clinic visits) and diminishing resources," said Kim Wyard, CEO for Northeast Valley Health Corp., a nonprofit that operates 10 licensed clinics throughout the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is considering an order that would slash the paychecks of hundreds of thousands of state workers to the federal minimum wage until the state budget impasse is resolved. Mike Zapler in the Mercury News.

The workers would be entitled to recover the difference between their salaries and the minimum wage - $6.55 an hour - once the state enacts a budget and appropriates the money, under an executive order that the governor's office has drafted and that he is considering signing next week.

But the delay would help the state through an immediate cash crunch, as well as add pressure to legislators who failed to resolve their differences and pass a budget, as required, by the July 1 start of the fiscal year.

As the stalemate over California's long-overdue budget continues, Los Angeles officials are alarmed that some lawmakers want to borrow local government funds to close the deficit, a move that could sap $150million from city coffers this year and cut funds for street paving, parks and other city services. Daily News.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa already has sent a letter to the governor, pleading with him to protect local funds even as the city grapples with its own budget squeeze amid a faltering economy.

The Los Angeles City Council adopted a resolution Wednesday calling on the state to avoid borrowing from funds that will impact the city's budget. And several members said they need more than resolutions - they need to intensify lobbying quickly - before the state adopts any final plan.

Los Angeles voters support another school bond, but don't trust Los Angeles Unified School District leadership, according to a limited poll conducted for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. George Sanchez in the Daily News.

The survey of likely voters found that 60 percent to more than 70 percent of respondents were willing to support bonds in amounts of $3.2 billion, $6 billion or $10 billion.

(The school board has yet to decide on an exact figure.)

The poll also found that 73 percent believe the school board is doing a poor or "just fair" job overseeing the district, while 55 percent rated Superintendent David Brewer III as poor or just fair.

As part of a Los Angeles County government effort to help ease global warming and the high cost of gasoline, a county panel on Wednesday approved a plan to build the county's first ethanol plant near the Lancaster landfill.Jerry Berrios and Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

The $30 million plant will be the first commercial facility in the nation to process biowaste - wood chips, grass cuttings and other organic waste - into ethanol, a gasoline additive that helps reduce air pollution and greenhouse gases and can be used as an alternative fuel.

It also is the first of three that Irvine-based BlueFire Ethanol plans to build in Southern California.

"Right now, our internal plan for BlueFire Ethanol is we want to build 20 of these types of facilities nationwide over the next seven years, and that will get us to roughly 1 billion gallons a year of production," said Arnold Klann, chief executive officer and president.

We are just guessing here, but don't expect to see a very crowded room on Thursday when the California Republican Party holds a leadership conference sponsored by the California African-American Republican Coaltion.
The conference will take place at the Burbank Airport Marriott & Convention Center.
It is to feature NFL Hall of Famer Lynn Swann. The confrfence will have panels and workshops on how the GOP can attract more African-Americans.
"Republican principles of entrepreneurship, promoting personal responsibility, and protecting private property rights work in every community where they're put into action,' the oarty said in a statement.
"To succeed, the Republican Party in California must continually expand its coalition into those communities that have recently favored other parties. This conference represents not a one-time occurrence, but the beginning of an ongoing commitment to expand our party in this state."

One of Los Angeles' most experienced planners, Bob Sutton, has joined a local consulting firm, becoming a senior member.
Robert Sutton, who recently retired after 36 years with the city Planning Department, joined the firm of Berghoff/Englander and Associates.
Sutton is a specialist in land use and zoning and dealt with some of the largest specific plans in the city, including the Coliseum, Staples Center, Warner Center and Universal City. He retired in January 2007 and formed his own consulting firm, which is being merged into the Berghoff-Englander firm.
The firm drew attention a couple of years ago when it lured former Deputy Mayor Marcus Allen to join them.
Englander has been the political consultant advising several city officials over the years.

There has been no improvement in voter impressions of the job Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state legislature are doing. While more disapprove (46%) than approve (40%) of the governor's performance, voter assessments of the state legislature are even worse, with more than twice as many holding a negative (57%) than positive (27%) view. California Poll in the San Francisco Sentinel.

An increasing proportion of Californians (68%) views the state budget deficit as a very serious problem. There is also declining confidence in the governor and state legislature in resolving the deficit situation. Currently 41% of voters do not have much confidence in Schwarzenegger to do what is right to resolve the deficit, while 52% say this about the state legislature.

In a plan that suits environmentalists and should unclog traffic at one of the world's most gridlocked freeway interchanges, Caltrans on Tuesday unveiled a $135 million proposal to expand a connector at the 405 and 101 freeways. Sue Doyle in the Daily News.

Calling for the demolition of a one-lane, sharp-turning ramp linking the southbound San Diego Freeway to the westbound Ventura Freeway, the plan aims to replace it with a two-lane bridge over the Sepulveda Dam.

While it would cut off access from Burbank Boulevard to the 101 forever, it also avoids cutting into land from the adjacent 225-acre Sepulveda Basin wildlife refuge, unlike two other proposals considered by the state in a 285-page environmental impact report.

Foreclosures in California soared in the second quarter to the highest level in at least 20 years, as many homeowners who bought at the height of the housing boom were unable to make mortgage payments, a real estate research firm said Tuesday.AP in the Daily News.

In addition, the number of default notices - an indicator of possible future foreclosures - also jumped during the period between April and June, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

In all, some 63,061 homes were lost to foreclosure in the second quarter - the most in any quarter since 1988, when the firm began tracking foreclosures.

Citing the area's polluted streets, rivers and ocean, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday took its first tentative step toward banning public use of plastic bags and phasing in a ban on city purchase and use of polystyrene products. Daily News.

Despite industry officials who said the products are recyclable - and that future technologies could deal with the problem - the council voted 13-0 to ban use of plastic bags in the city by 2010.

It also voted to start to phase out polystyrene products at all city facilities - including Los Angeles International Airport - beginning July 1, 2009.

A group seeking the recall of two longtime San Fernando City Council members turned in enough signatures by Tuesday's deadline to potentially qualify for the November ballot, city officials said.Connie Llanos and Adolfo Flores in the Daily News.

Backers turned in 2,220 signatures to recall Julie Ruelas and 2,250 signatures to recall Jose Hernandez.

San Fernando City Clerk Elena Chavez now has 30 days to determine whether at least 1,760 of the signatures - the minimum required to qualify the effort - against each of the two council members were gathered from properly registered voters.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other officials announced on Monday a new $100 million fund designed to help build and replace affordable housing in Los Angeles in what leaders said is an effort to fill a housing gap in the nation's most expensive city. Daily News.

"The gap between income and housing affordability is larger here than anywhere else in the nation," Villaraigosa told former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who was on hand for the Skid Row news conference.

The New Generation Fund, developed by the private Enterprise Community Funds and a number of financial institutions, will be administered by the city to provide up to $10 million to developers of affordable housing.

Villaraigosa said it is in addition to $200 million the city has put into its own Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

The mayor said he will announce soon how much is to be budgeted this year for the program.

The mayor said he and others recognize that the national mortgage crisis is affecting the middle class, but said affordable housing is particularly needed for the working poor who are being forced out of lodging because of hous

Former Sen. John Edwards said Monday he will do all he can to help elect Sen. Barack Obama as preisdent _ including being his running mate.
``What I have said many times now is first, I'm not seeking the job. I
don't expect to be asked,'' Edwards said at a news confefence.
``Anything that I'm asked to do by Sen. Obama, either as a presidential
candidate or as the next president of the Untied States, I would take seriously
and seriously consider.''
Edwards was the VP nominee to Sen. John Kerry four years ago and ran for president this year until dropping out before the California primary in February.

DWP General Manager H. David Nahai was booed and hissed by High Desert residents Saturday during the utility's first public hearing on a proposal to string power lines through the desert to carry renewable energy to Los Angeles.

While the DWP has tried to pitch the Green Path project as the city's attempt to cut global warming gases and become a more environmentally-friendly utility, desert communities aren't having it. They say it will destroy pristine habitats.

The Inland Daily Bulletin was at the meeting and captured the scene.

A number of environmental and energy policy groups addressed Nahai at the emotionally charged meeting. One woman broke into tears as she presented Nahai with photos of her community and asked him not to destroy it. Nahai hugged her.

Its leaders like to see this city as a sort of Latino Mayberry, an idyllic small-town oasis surrounded by the most urbanized areas of the San Fernando Valley.Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

With new redevelopment plans, a beefed-up police force and more government grant money flowing, San Fernando city officials have been working hard to live up to that image.

But even as those efforts move forward, an increasing number of city residents have grown dissatisfied with the city's leadership, prompting them to launch a recall effort against two of the City Council's five members.

The signatures are due Tuesday, and organizers say they fully expect to qualify for the November ballot.

As soaring gas prices drive a growing number of consumers to consider alternative fuels, officials are considering a proposal to build what would be Los Angeles County's first ethanol plant.Jerry Berrios in the Daily News.

And BlueFire Ethanol says its plant, proposed for Lancaster, also would be the first commercial facility in the country to process biowaste - woodchips, grass cuttings and other organic waste from a nearby landfill - into ethanol.

"We turn something that is useless into high-value commodities," said Bill Davis, vice president of project management for the Irvine-based company. "It has huge potential for us, our company, the state of California, the United States."

- Concerned about crime and a spike in abandoned homes, more than 100 residents poured into the Sportsmen's Lodge on Sunday for a neighborhood empowerment meeting.Sue Doyle ijn the Daily News.

Standing together to protect their communities, residents pushed for the 42 new community watch groups that have been established since last year to stand guard in Sherman Oaks, Studio City and Valley Village.

The latest local efforts nearly double the number of watch groups to 89 safeguarding those areas as residents mobilize to obliterate graffiti and blight tainting their streets.

TIPOFFS: Councilman Tony Cardenas in tussle over MTA site; battle plans laid out for parcel tax.

Terry Holtzman has watched his income sour in recent months as the plummeting housing market pushed much of the Southland's economy to the verge of recession. Beth Barrett in the Daily News.

And now, when the Woodland Hills construction worker has less to spend, rising prices for everything from food to fuel have intensified the squeeze on money for even the most basic of needs: such as keeping the power on at home.

"It's tightening up my budget," Holtzman said as he waited to pay his $350 Department of Water and Power bill at a Winnetka customer service center last week. "I'm not being able to pay my bills in full for whatever bills I have.

In a working-class neighborhood known as Colonia Vicente Guerrero west of downtown Mexicali, a young boy lay in the middle of the street waiting for a car or bus to run him over and end his life.Tony Castro in the Daily News.

But the bus that finally came stopped inches from him and a middle-aged woman hopped out and hurriedly approached the boy.

"Es Juan!" the woman screamed, grabbing her grandson - young Juan Manuel Alvarez - into her arms and scurrying to her house nearby.

Two decades later and a country to the north, the 29-year-old Alvarez's death wish eventually led to the worst disaster in Metrolink history when he stopped his SUV on the tracks near the Glendale-Los Angeles city line and the resulting train derailment killed 11 people and injured more than 180. others.

Anxious airline carriers reeling from financial pressures have posted travel schedules for November that reflect a 16.4 percent drop in flights at Los Angeles International Airport compared with a year earlier.Art Marroquin in the Daily News.

Rising fuel costs have prompted the airlines to use smaller jets, cut routes and increase ticket prices, leading to a reduction of more than 1,900 weekly takeoffs and landings at LAX by late fall, according to scheduling data released Friday by Atlanta-based Innovata, one of two airline industry databases.

As a result, 163,600 fewer seats will be available to airline passengers each week beginning in November, a 10.7 percent drop from the same period last year, according to Innovata's figures.

Amid concerns that voters may hesitate to approve a fifth multibillion-dollar school construction bond in a decade, Los Angeles Unified officials and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa have crafted a proposal to woo the public with promises to fund charter schools and small learning communities. Kerry Cavanaugh and George Sanchez in the Daily News.

At a hastily called news conference Friday afternoon, Villaraigosa and LAUSD leaders provided few details of the proposed bond measure but said a portion would be dedicated to developing charter schools and breaking up behemoth public schools into independent, mini-campuses.

"This is not about slapping another coat of paint on a problem," Villaraigosa said. "This reform-minded bond will create smaller, independent schools rooted in community and free from downtown bureaucracy."

More likely voters oppose than favor a November ballot initiative to ban same-sex marriage in the state constitution, according to a survey released Friday.AP in the Daily News.

The Field Poll found that 51 percent of likely voters say they would vote against Proposition 8, while 42 percent say they would vote for it.

The poll shows a turnaround from 2000, when 61 percent of voters cast ballots in favor Proposition 22, which strengthened the state's 1978 one-man, one-woman marriage law with the words "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."

With seemingly about as much thought as one of those old movies where kids came together to put on a show, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, School Board President Monica Garcia and a bunch of other folks came out Friday for a new multi-billion dollar bond issued to go on the November ballot.
The announcement came at a hastily called news conference -- less than an hour's notice was given -- and on a Friday afternoon, a move seen as guaranteeing little news coverage.
The purpose of the measure is to help create small charter schools as part of the new initiative at th Los Angeles Unified School District _ a program yet to be put into practice to even see if it works.
The bond measure is for an undetermined amount. The cost to taxpayers is not known. The language of the measure and what it would actually do is not available.
Local officials are fond of saying the devil is in the details. It would be nice to see them.

After record-low turnout in California's June primary, political analysts expect a vastly different scenario this fall as voters go to the polls to decide the next president and the fate of at least a dozen statewide propositions. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

Bonds totaling about $16.8billion and measures to crack down on gangs, expand the use of renewable energy, ban same-sex marriages and redraw the state's legislative district boundaries are just some of the issues voters will settle.

"It's a real smorgasbord," said Allan Hoffenblum, a Republican political consultant. "You have cultural issues, social issues, animal-rights issues - you name it, it's on there. And then you have what is perceived to be one of the more exciting presidential races in recent history.

Call it the trickle-nowhere effect. Julia M. Scott in the Daily News.

Plunging home values and soaring consumer prices that are squeezing the cash flow of consumers have put a stranglehold on many local businesses.

The evidence can been seen in the profusion of for-lease signs on Ventura Boulevard storefronts and, in many of the surviving shops, a distinct imbalance between customers and merchandise.

Sharply disputing a state report, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Thursday said he believes the dropout rate at Los Angeles schools is even worse than the dismal 33 percent estimated by state officials. Daily News.

Villaraigosa, who previously used the dropout rate issue as leverage to take control of a handful of schools, said the new state figures released Wednesday did not take into account all relevant factors.

For example, he said, the state report did not count students who dropped out before ninth grade.

Following through on a pledge made months ago, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Thursday that plans are under way to soon expand the CLEAR anti-gang program to four more areas, including one in the San Fernando Valley.Daily News.

At the same time, he told a group of police officers, probation officials and prosecutors involved in the eight existing CLEAR sites that more emphasis needs to be given to prevention and intervention efforts.

"We cannot arrest our way out of this situation," he told the groups, gathered at the Ahmanson Training Center in Westchester, where they were reviewing progress in the CLEAR program.

California Democrats and independent voters who backed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton have gravitated in huge numbers to Sen. Barack Obama - a consolidation of support that has given him a 24-point lead over Republican rival John McCain in the nation's most populous state, the latest Field Poll shows. San Francisco Chronicle in the Daily News.

The poll shows that Clinton's supporters prefer Obama to McCain, 80 percent to 8 percent, and the Illinois senator holds a 2-to-1 lead among California's likely female voters.

However, the poll carries a margin of error of 5.1 percentage points for its questions to 376 likely Democratic and nonpartisan voters asked about Obama's running mate.

More than one-third of Los Angeles Unified high school students drop out, according to a new study released Wednesday that is expected to end a long controversy over the accuracy of state dropout rates.George Sanchez in the Daily News.

The district's four-year dropout rate of 33.6 percent was well above the statewide average of 24.2 percent, sparking renewed calls to beef up academic standards in the nation's second-largest school district.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said the new numbers indicate the state's schools are facing a crisis.

He also said the num

Southern California's housing woes continued in June as prices plunged more than 29percent from a year earlier and sales remained at a two-decade low, an industry tracker said Wednesday. Gregory J. Wilcox in the Daily News.

A wave of foreclosures that flooded the market with homes for sale pushed down the median price from $502,000 in June 2007 to $355,000 last month across the six-county region, said DataQuick Information Systems.

The median price fell 4 percent from May.

In his third major civil action filed against an insurance company, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo on Wednesday accused Blue Shield of California of improperly canceling policies of more than 850 people who faced major expenses for medical costs. Daily News.

"Blue Shield's practices are shameful," Delgadillo said at a City Hall news conference where he was joined by a Chino couple whose policy was canceled, attorneys and consumer advocates.

"They knowingly issued policies that they later rescinded once people got sick."

Delgadillo alleged that the firm had a secret unit that reviewed claims and sought to cancel those in which there would be ongoing or exceptionally high medical expenses.

Blue Shield spokesman Tom Epstein said the Delgadillo action was without merit.
"The issues raised in the complaint are thoroughly regulated by two state agencies that have aggressively defended the interests of consumers. In filing this complaint, the City Attorney has seized on a hot topic in an attempt to advance his political future," Epstein said."

The City Attorney asserts that we have committed unfair practices regarding the payment of claims for 400,000 individual policyholders without a shred of evidence that our actions were improper. He fails to mention that since 2002, we have paid nearly $4 billion in claims for those policyholders. He claims that we used intentionally misleading applications, but our applications were reviewed and approved by two state regulators."

Epstein also said Delgadillo never spoke to the company before filing his action.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is making the rounds this week on the morning radio shows, tackling the tough issues.

Take this morning's interview on KIIS FM. Host Ryan Seacrest assessed the mayor's flawless skin ("Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is here and his skin is perfect!") and sleeping schedule (four-and-a-half to five hours a night). Actually, Villaraigosa managed to turn even the softest of softball questions into policy answers. And callers from Lancaster, Anaheim, Redondo Beach and North Hollywood had much praise for the L.A. mayor.

Tomorrow, Villaraigosa will be a guest on Rick Dees in the Morning on Movin' 93.9 and Big Boys Neighborhood on Power 106.

Curbed LA posted this fantastic photo yesterday and shared the news that the Los Angeles Department of Transportation is testing out a new LED sign on Main Street downtown.

DOT staffers noticed the lit signs at trade shows and were curious to see how well they performed, said Assistant General Manager John Fisher. The LED signs cost $3,000 a piece compared to $70 for the old reflective signs. The city bought one to try out. So, how's it working?

Fisher couldn't offer his assessment. "It just went up two weeks ago and I haven't seen it at night yet."

What's wrong with the old reflective street signs? Fisher said some low-profile headlights don't illuminate the reflective signs as well. Plus, the increasing number of older drivers may benefit from brighter street signs. But, don't expect to see these signs across the city until the prices drop considerably.

He's bucked City Hall. He's pressured Sacramento. And he's been one of the youngest champions of San Fernando Valley business.
But Brendan Huffman says his days are numbered as president and CEO of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association. This week, the 37-year-old business leader said he'll be leaving VICA in December.
"I think I've gotten as far as I can get with this organization. I've pushed a lot of things through," said Huffman, hired two years ago to breathe life into the Valley business advocacy group.
He doesn't yet have another job lined up, and no successor has been named to replace him, he said.
He led VICA to oppose such city initiatives as the phone tax and garbage fees. This year, the group launched Red Tape Busters to clear obstructions at City Hall. Huffman is married to school board member Tamar Galatzan.

Los Angeles County's plummeting housing market has pushed the region to the brink of recession while some communities have already dropped into negative growth territory, according to an economic forecast released today.Gregory J. Wilcox in the Daily News.

It's the bleakest outlook in years from the Kyser Center for Economic Research at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. - and much different from the forecast issued at the beginning of 2008.

"It's much gloomier," said Jack Kyser, LAEDC chief economist.

"This time, it's a whole bunch of negative forces and they are all hitting at once. There is a high level of fear out there on the part of business and the general public."

A proposed new admissions policy for the University of California system could give thousands of students a better chance of getting into the elite state schools, but critics say the changes threaten to weaken educational quality.Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

The proposal, to be discussed today by the Board of Regents, would reduce the grades, classes and admissions tests required of high school students before their applications are fully reviewed.

"All we are doing is guaranteeing more students a shot," said Mark Rashid, chairman of UC's Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools, which proposed the change.

Frustrated with repeat campaign finance violations by Councilman Tony Cardenas, the Los Angeles Ethics Commission asked its staff Tuesday to consider at least tripling proposed fines for accepting excess campaign contributions. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

Commission staff had proposed fining Cardenas $2,050 for accepting $500 in excess contributions from three donors and for failing to submit two scripts of automated phone calls made before his 2006 re-election.

But commissioners said those fines were too low, considering that Cardenas has been fined for 15 similar violations during elections in 2001 and 2003.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has named actress Bo Derek to the California Horse Racing Board.
The actress, who now lives in Santa Ynez, long has been active in protecting horses, serving as spokeswoman for the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act.
She has served as chair for the Department of Veterans Affairs' National Rehabilitation Special Events since 2000. Additionally, Derek has served as the special envoy of the Secretary of State on Wildlife Trafficking and has served on the board of WildAid and the Galapagos Conservancy, Ecuador.
Also named to the board is David Israel, 57, of Los Angeles. A writer and television producer, israel served onthe Coliseum Commission and the California Science Center Board of Directors.

With multiple levels of bureaucracy and outdated emergency plans, the city of Los Angeles is not as prepared as it should be in the event of a major disaster, according to an audit released Monday.Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

While police, fire and other individual departments have good plans to respond to large-scale emergencies such as an earthquake or terrorist attack, L.A. lacks an overarching strategy on how to manage a crisis.

"I do not want the public to be afraid," said Controller Laura Chick, who ordered the audit. "But I want the public to know that the city of Los Angeles is not as well-prepared for a widespread disaster as we need to be and as we can be."

A run on IndyMac Federal Bank intensified Monday as a flood of anxious depositors descended on its 33 branches, worried about the fate of their accounts in the failed thrift. Gregory J Wilcox in the Daily News.

Lines snaked around IndyMac offices in the San Fernando Valley and throughout Southern California, with customers waiting hours under the scorching sun. Many had accounts totaling more than $100,000 - the amount guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. - and wondered whether they could get their money.

"I didn't think this could happen," said Charles Tengeri, a retired schoolteacher who emerged from the bank with a check for $171,000 - an amount he said represented most of his savings.

The city of Calabasas could be slapped with a freedom-of-speech lawsuit unless it reverses a policy of barring grant funds from those who sue the city, the ACLU announced Monday.Dana Bartholomew in the Daily News.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California called the city's policy discriminatory and said it violates the First Amendment.

The group warned the city in a letter that unless it repeals the policy, Calabasas will likely face a lawsuit and a possible federal court injunction.

"There is no reason to bar a group from obtaining city funding based on past or pending litigation," said Peter Eliasberg, an ACLU managing attorney. "That comes dangerously close to a loyalty test." He added that the policy strikes at the heart of a First Amendment right to allow people to petition over their grievances, with access to the courts a part of that right.

With a symbolic bag of trash representing their anger at City Hall, about 200 people turned out Monday for a "Take Back Los Angeles" rally, calling for officials to sign a "Contract for a Great Los Angeles."

Former Daily News editor Ron Kaye, joined by KABC-AM (790)'s Doug McIntyre, Green Dot Schools President Steve Barr and writer-performer Sandra Tsing Loh - along with representatives of several other groups - called for residents to become more involved to affect how City Hall responds to their demands. Daily News.

"The political culture of Los Angeles is corrupt," Kaye said. "It is owned by an institution that excludes people. ... We have to take them down and we have to be the boss."

A variety of groups was represented, including homeowners in Van Nuys and Sunland-Tujunga, supporters of the Southwest Museum, bicyclists and political acvitists.

California Democrats, looking to further bolster its ranks in Congress and the state Legislature, are developing a 58-county strategy go turn out voters.
Party Chairman Art Torres announced Monday that state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter in the Central Valley, will head up the effort
Florez, who was elected to the Assembly in 1998 when he defeated a Republican incumbent, knows what it takes to win, Torres said.
"Voters are more tuned in to the tough issues we face as a state and a nation than they have been in many years, and we need to give them the tools and opportunity to translate those strong feelings into effective action," Torres said.
Florez said he will meet with the Democratic Central Committees in each of the state's counties to serve as a liasion with the state praty.
"We are at a turning point in history, and voters are rightfully excited," Florez said.

Councilman Bernard Parks is rushing -- unbidden -- to the defense of Sen. Barack Obama against the "New Yorker" Magazine cover.
Parks, a candidate against Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas for the Board of Supervisors, is calling today for a boycott of the magazine and the way the magazine depicts Obama and his wife, in a send-up of the internet rumors regarding the couple.
"I have seen the front cover of 'The New Yorker Magazine' that is set to hit newsstands Monday. The publication's decision to illustrate Sen. Barack Obama in a turban and Mrs. Michelle Obama armed with an assault rifle and wearing military fatigues and combat boots is absolutely appalling," Parks said.
"he illustration takes me back to a time in this country that none of us should be proud of."
As part of their campaign, Parks and Ridley-Thomas have also battled over who is closest to Obama. Parks claims to be the first local official to endorse Obama, while Ridley-Thomas lays claim to being a national co-chair of the campaign.

***
And it works
Parks got a lot more attention than just the media in Los Angeles. He became a talking head on CNN as the magazine cover became a daily talking point in the presidential campaign.

The Mexican ranchero music blaring from the corner jukebox drowned out most of what the afternoon lunch crowd at La Costa Azul restaurant was saying. Tony Castro in the Daily News.

It could have been any one of thousands of Mexican diners throughout Los Angeles: Mirrored advertisements for Corona Extra, Tecate and Budweiser. A painting of the Virgen de Guadalupe and another of her discoverer St. Juan Diego. Votive candles above the shelves of glasses.

And the day's shrimp specials chalked on a board: Camarones Rancheros. Camarones al Mojo de Alo. Camarones a la Diabla. Camarones Empanizados. Camarones Ahogados. Camarones Imperiales. Camarones a la Plancha.

Next to rows of gas-thirsty new Tahoes at Community Chevrolet, the used Cavalier is king.
Dana Bartholomew in the Daily News.

While sales of behemoth SUVs and trucks have veered into the slow lane on $5-a-gallon fuel, such miserly economy cars are racing off the Burbank lot.

"This car will probably be gone today," said Ian Hovey, general manager and partner at the nearly half-century-old dealer, as he gestures toward the 11-year-old Cavalier.

"Gas-saving cars are really saving us right now, keeping us alive. We're looking for every small used car we can get."

Either you're riding public transportation more because of high gas prices or you're spending your entire stimulus check from the government at the pump. And if you're hopping aboard the Metrolink commuter train, that could get you into the circus for cheap: Sue Doyle in the Daily News.

Commuters searching for more inexpensive ways to get around without cars are piling onto Metro's light-rail lines, where ridership has soared by about 13 percent from a year ago, breaking some all-time records, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Last month, an all-time high of 26,338 passengers each weekday stepped onto the Gold Line - a 32 percent spike from June 2007 on the light rail that links Pasadena to Union Station. It's also a 14 percent increase from May of this year.

TIPOFFS: Political maneuvring behind sales tax plan; multi-tasking for mayor?

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in an interview aired Sunday that he would be open to the idea of serving as energy czar in a Barack Obama administration. Politico

Regardless of whether he takes that particular job, Schwarzenegger, a Republican, added on ABC's "This Week" that he's now committed to continuing public service even after he leaves Sacramento.

Schwarzenegger endorsed John McCain at the end of January, and McCain has appeared with "the Governator" to praise his efforts to deal with climate change.

n a city obsessed with the automobile, living in Los Angeles without one - on purpose - seems unthinkable, unreasonable, maybe even a little nuts. Sue Doyle in the Daily News.

But with the days of low-cost gas gone and no national alternative-fuel plan at hand, living car-free is one way some Americans pursue their own energy plans to help save money.

Globally, a car-free movement is afoot to shrink dependence on automobiles and create places where vehicles are unnecessary.

Locally, however, the car-free idea breezes into Los Angeles on Earth Day and other environmental days and floats out 24 hours later. Some say the county's public transportation system is too limited to make living without a car possible.

The San Fernando Valley's Latino population has grown more than four times faster than the rest of Los Angeles' Latino population, leading demographers to project Latinos may outnumber Anglos in the Valley by as early as 2010. Tony Castro in the Daily News.

Fueling the growth is immigration of Central Americans and Mexicans to the Northeast Valley, where once-isolated Latino pockets have mushroomed into full-scale communities.

While the boom has created a vibrant, multicultural Valley, it has not come without problems - including urban decay and crime.

According to law enforcement officials, the Valley is now home to 20,000 gang members - predominantly Latino - and gang violence has increased 42 percent in the past year.

And 85 percent of the time, those most victimized by the gangs are other Latino residents of the Valley.

Los Angeles Unified officials are considering opening as many as five long-closed school sites in the San Fernando Valley to house hundreds of charter school students. George Sanchez in the Daily News.

The sites have been closed since the early 1980s because of declining enrollment, but growing demand for charter space has prompted officials to renew a plan that drew heated debate six years ago and is again drawing community resistance.

But with the LAUSD required to accommodate charters under state law, despite continuing strains on classroom space, district officials said they are eyeing all options.

With a leading critic absent, the Los Angeles City Council pushed through a measure for the Nov. 4 ballot asking property owners to pay $36 a year to fund citywide gang-prevention and -intervention programs.Daily News.

The 12-0 vote Friday gives final approval to move forward with a parcel tax that has been debated for nearly two years after the gang-related slaying of 13-year-old Cheryl Green in the city's Harbor Gateway area.

The vote comes just days after a heated dispute over a provision that had been quietly inserted into the measure that would have allowed the council to increase the tax every year to reflect the cost of inflation.

Los Angeles voters will be asked this November to revamp outdated policies that could prohibit the city from funding low-income housing projects larger than five units and taller than two stories. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

While the policies have been on the books for more than 30 years, housing officials have gotten around the restrictions and funded many three-story and taller affordable-housing projects for families and the homeless.

But last fall, the state's Housing and Community Development Department started looking more closely at the old policies, and Los Angeles Housing Department officials realized they needed to update their rules or risk losing $1.2 billion in housing bond money approved by voters in 2006.

The Central City Association next week is honoring the folks who provide entree to elected offiicals -- the chiefs of staff to the City Council and Board of Supervisors.
The event is scheduled for Tuesday at the Takami Restarant and Elevate Lounge in downtown Los Angeles

At a time when many Los Angeles County residents are grappling with the squeeze of an economic downturn, dozens of top county government officials are tooling around in "unjustified luxury vehicles" costing taxpayers as much as $50,000 each. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

More than 1,400 county workers are given take-home cars, even though some don't have official authorization to drive them, and at least 30 employees aren't paying the required taxes on the vehicles.

Meanwhile, county employees were involved in 1,852 accidents in their take-home vehicles over the past few years - with 830 accidents in 2005-06 alone that cost taxpayers $6.7 million.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Thursday proposed a $9.3 billion bond to shore up California's water supply through a combination of reservoirs and conservation projects. AP in the Daiiy News.

Billions also would be spent to help the ecologically fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the heart of the state's intricate water-supply system.

Schwarzenegger hopes to win approval from leaders in the state Legislature and put the plan before voters in November.

Testifying under immunity, a former key deputy mayor in the Hahn administration said Thursday he was pressured by then-Airport Commissioner Leland Wong on a port deal without knowing Wong also was being paid by the shipping company involved in that deal.Beth Barrett in the Daily News.

Troy Edwards, who rose from a young political fundraiser to a powerful deputy overseeing Los Angeles' airports, ports, and water and power departments, echoed earlier testimony by former Mayor James Hahn.

Edwards testified that he didn't know about $100,000 in payments to Wong from the Taiwanese-based Evergreen Group. Prosecutors charge those payments were a bribe.

In politics, everyone is looking for a good slogan. Just the right play and rhythm that encapsulates an idea.
And, when a good one comes along, you have to recognize it, give credit to its author and then, steal it.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he had no qualms with one he heard on Thursday at the unveiling of a mural with the LA Best after school program.
"Prevention not detention," Villaraigosa said after being told it was the them of artist Charles Warren in developing the mural.
"I'll give credit for it today, but when you hear me say it in the future, I'm claiming it as my own," Villaraigosa joked to the crowd.

In his first testimony in a case stemming from a City Hall "pay-to-play" corruption scandal during his administration, former Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn said Wednesday that longtime friend and former Airports Commissioner Leland Wong never told him he was accepting money from a company he also was negotiating with on a 2002 trip to Asia. Beth Barrett in the Daily News.

Hahn, looking tanned and trim in a well-tailored suit, was called by prosecutors who allege that Wong exchanged his influence for a $100,000 bribe from Evergreen Group.

Wong has pleaded not guilty to 21 felony counts, including conflict of interest, perjury and embezzlement from an employer.

Deputy District Attorney Max Huntsman showed Hahn a Nov. 22, 2002, letter in Wong's handwriting addressed to former Deputy Mayor Troy Edwards asking for improved lease terms for Evergreen Marine at the port.

Even as a new dispute developed Wednesday over a proposed parcel tax to fund anti-gang programs in Los Angeles, City Councilwoman Janice Hahn said she would remove a quietly inserted provision that would have allowed the tax to be increased every year. Daily News.

The controversy erupted after a draft of the measure, which has been championed by Hahn, included an allowance for the City Council to boost the tax amount every year to reflect the cost of inflation.

The provision sparked an outcry from taxpayer advocates and others who said it raised concerns over the final cost to taxpayers with no accounting for where or how the money would be spent.

alifornia Assembly Speaker Emeritus Fabian Nunez and U.S. Rep. Linda Sanchez have been named to the Democratic National Convention's Platform Committee. The two are part of a 19-member delegation that will hammer out the party's position on health care, Iraq, and other key topics. Nunez is a national co-chair of the Hillary Clinton for President Committee. California Majority Report,

Mayor Antonio Villariagosa is being pressed into service again to help Sen. Barack Obama.
But this time, it's just down the freeway in San Diego.
Villaraigosa is scheduled to introduce Obama at the convention of the National Council of La Raza at its annual convention _ similar duties to what he performed this week in Washington, D.C., before LULAC.
However, aides said, this time the mayor will also be making a major speech of his own, talking about the nation's; immigration policy and the need for Latinos and African-Americans to work together.

The LAPD has targeted 17 officers and two sergeants - but no high-ranking officials - for misconduct during last year's May Day confrontation that broke out after an all-day immigration-rights march, officials said Tuesday.Rachel Uranga in the Daily News.

The unnamed officers were the only ones singled out for punishment by the department in an incident that sparked frank mea culpas from LAPD Chief William Bratton and a scathing, self-critical report.

Disturbing images of riot-clad officers firing rubber bullets into a crowd of women and children and roughing up reporters during the May 2007 incident were broadcast across the country.

Frustrated with a lack of transparency in the cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Lab, the U.S. EPA has fired off a harsh letter to the Energy Department threatening to pull out of a long-awaited radiation study at the former nuclear research site. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

In a July 2 letter, EPA Site Cleanup Branch Chief Michael Montgomery warned that "recent events demonstrate a significant lack of transparency in DOE's interactions with EPA and the public."

Montgomery also wrote that the Energy Department planned to use radiation standards that were far more lax than EPA guidelines.

Trash-fee increases imposed on Angelenos two years ago generated enough money to hire new cops and pay for raises throughout the Los Angeles Police Department, according to a new review released Tuesday. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

The analysis by City Controller Laura Chick is the first into how the city spent funds from the trash-fee increase - and whether the funds paid for police hiring as the mayor and City Council had promised.

It comes as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council are planning an additional 30 percent increase that will push the monthly trash fee to $36.

With Hollywood facing its second major strike of the year, a Los Angeles city official on Tuesday called for more municipal effort to accommodate the film industry and state legislation to give it job-training credits. Daily News.

"Without Hollywood there is no Tinseltown," council President Eric Garcetti said after introducing a proposal to expand enterprise zones and tax credits the city offers and to develop proposals to accommodate film shoots around the city.

Garcetti said he and Councilman Tom LaBonge believe the city needs to do more to keep productions - and their jobs - in the city.

Despite protests from election activists, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to appoint Dean Logan as Los Angeles County's registrar-recorder. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

Logan, who will earn $195,000 annually, replaces former Registrar-Recorder Conny McCormack, who retired in January with a salary of $185,648 a year.

"Obviously, I'm pleased to be through the process and really honored to have the full support of the board and the recommendation of the CEO," Logan said. "The focus now is on the November election. That's the high-profile project at the moment."

SACRAMENTO - Former South Bay Republican congressman Tom Campbell - a fiscal conservative, social moderate and respected academic who twice before unsuccessfully sought statewide office, is eyeing a possible run in 2010 to replace Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. San Jose Mercury News.

Campbell, 55, filed papers last week to form an "exploratory committee" for governor, which allows him to begin raising money for a potential bid. He joins two other GOP moderates from Silicon Valley - state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and former eBay chief Meg Whitman - among Republicans who have expressed interest in running.

On the Democratic side, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Attorney General and former Gov. Jerry Brown, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Lt. Gov. John Garamendi are likely or possible contenders to succeed Schwarzenegger, who is termed out of office in 2011.

Despite a surge in home foreclosures in the region, the total assessed value of properties across Los Angeles County has increased for yet another year, to more than $1 trillion, county officials are expected to announce today. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

The 7 percent increase pushes the county assessment rolls to $1.1 trillion and marks the second year assessments have topped that pricey milestone, Assessor Rick Auerbach said.

The rise also marks more than a decade of consecutive increases in assessed values of county residential and commercial properties, although the rate of increase is down from 9.3 percent the prior year.

The iconic Theme Building at LAX is about to grow a thicker skin. Art Marroquin in the Daily News.
Months after the building's metal skeleton was exposed and its sides surrounded in scaffolding, the Board of Airport Commissioners has approved a $9.3 million contract to replace the plaster exterior of the 1960s-era landmark.

Los Angeles-based Tower General Contractors was selected Monday to restore the white stucco skin on all four arches, which will finally bring the Theme Building back to the historic look made famous in movies and television shows.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who switched his loyalty from Sen. Hillary Clinton to Sen. Barack Obama, is going on the road Tuesday to introduce Obama to one of the largest Latino organizations.
Villaraigosa is scheduled to be in Washington, D.C., to introduce Obama at the annual convention of LULAC.
During the primary season, Obama was easily outpolled by Clinton among Latino voters. Villaraigosa has pledged to put the same energy out for Obama as he did for Clinton, when he traveled across the country for her.
Also invited to address the group is Clinton and Republican nominee Sen. John McCain.

Forbes.com recently highlighted the nation's 10 most fuel-efficient neighborhoods and LA's own Koreatown made the list.

What makes K-Town the choice for conscientious gas consumers? There are good transit options on Wilshire Boulevard. And there's lots of shops, restaurants and services accessible by foot so you can leave the car at home. Forbes estimates a Koreatown resident could save as much as 25 percent on his or her transportation costs, compared to other L.A. communities.

Claudia Diaz remembers when the grocery bags handed out at the Santa Clarita Valley Food Pantry were heavier. Jerry Berrios in the Daily News.

The single mother from Newhall would pick up cakes, desserts and frozen soup donated to the pantry from the Olive Garden, in addition to the standard staples of milk, bread and canned vegetables.

"When I started coming here, they gave me more food," said Diaz, who has received food donations for the last 10 months. "I noticed in the last couple of months, it has been less."

With food prices soaring, food pantries across Southern California and the nation find themselves facing record demand for their services.

Tipoffs: Councilman Dennis Zine concerned about gang tax, Councilman Bill Rosendahl, wants even more for transit.

Now that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom looks like he'll run for governor in two years, at least we're going to have a race with some glam. Jim Boren in the Fresno Bee.

You'll recall that in the last gubernatorial election, the Democrats put up Phil Angelides as their candidate, and he turned out to be a real snoozer. Angelides is bright, likable and very boring.

This real estate market collapse is starting to send signals that it will differ from the last one in one key aspect: It may not last as long. Gregory J. wilcox in the Daily News.

That hope is gleaned from four reports released late last month showing sales have increased for four consecutive months. And there is a strong indication that June's sales will increase from May.

Before a market can recover, it has to find a bottom. Maybe we've seen it.

"Probably by the end of the year we will start to see some stability in the (county's) housing market," said Jack Kyser, vice president and chief economist of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

Shortly after becoming the presumptive Republican presidential nominee last spring, John McCain packed a downtown hotel ballroom with Southern California GOP faithful who cheered his political triumph in the heart of what was once Reagan country. Tony Castro in the Daily News.

But several months later, McCain has been all but an absentee candidate in the Southland, prompting the popular blog LAist to wonder after his recent campaign swing into other parts of the state: "Why did John McCain avoid Los Angeles?"

It is the same question of the McCain operation that has been asked even by some of his followers in the San Fernando Valley - especially as the local Barack Obama grass-roots campaign in recent weeks has regularly scheduled bake sales, house parties, voter registration drives and other activities.

Los Angeles is losing the war on billboards.

Despite a six-year-old ban on new billboards, activists say Los Angeles' streets, sidewalks and buildings have more advertising than ever. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

Court rulings, legal settlements, rampant disregard for the restrictions and weak enforcement have crippled L.A.'s attempts to limit signs and prohibit illegal signs.

There are at least 10,000 billboards in L.A., and as many as one-third of them are illegal. Plus, there are increasing numbers of supergraphic ads that swathe the sides of buildings and minibillboard advertisements line sidewallks.

A desire for greater independence is stirring among the owners of Whittier Boulevard's panaderias and auto shops much as it did among gentleman tobacco farmers and tradesmen in bustling seaports of Colonial America. Rachel Uranga in the Daily News.

Two hundred thirty-two years after the Founding Fathers signed the U.S. Declaration of Independence, Oscar Gonzales and a handful of officials and community leaders launched their own independence drive Friday to create the city of East Los Angeles.

"East Los Angeles has been an ATM machine for the rest of the county," said Gonzales, president of East Los Angeles Residents Association.

The presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama turned to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Los Angeles, to serve as surrogates for his reponse to the new Spanish language ads by Sen. John McCain.
Villaraigosa, of course, was a high profile national co-chair of the campaign for Sen. HIllary Clinton.
The mayor and Obama met recently in Miami where he pledged his support to the presumed Demoratic nominee.
The full statements are after the jump?

Seeking to break a three-year prohibition prompted by a "pay-to-play" scandal under former Mayor James Hahn, the Port of Los Angeles is seeking to hire two private public relations firms to long-term contracts worth $1.3 million.

The Harbor Commission last month voted to approve the scope of work with the Rogers Group and Hill and Knowlton to develop a public outreach and education program to promote its new Clean Air Action Plan.Daily News.

The firms also would develop additional efforts, and create an informational program to help the port get more federal funds for its programs.

Both firms were selected after responding to requests for proposals.

The Rogers Group will be paid up to $750,000 for a three-year contract and Hill and Knowlton will be paid $600,000 for its three-year agreement.

Despite dire warnings that Los Angeles city workers would face layoffs to balance a severe budget deficit, just four workers could potentially lose their jobs.Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

In March, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa held a press conference to say he was going to eliminate 767 city jobs - more than 1 percent of the nearly 50,000 citywide work force - and warned that layoffs were almost certain.

But while city officials did cut funding in the budget for nearly 700 city jobs, virtually all of the displaced workers have been able to move into vacant positions.

In the highest-profile case to come out of City Hall "pay-to-play" corruption investigations in the administration of former Mayor James Hahn, prosecutors Wednesday detailed their allegations that former commissioner Leland Wong exchanged his influence for a $100,000 bribe from a company doing business with the city. Beth Barrett in the Daily News.

But in opening statements, Wong's lawyer said the former commissioner did nothing improper and was a committed civic servant who was singled out unfairly by the political system.

Wong, 51, of San Marino sat composed as Superior Court Judge Michael Johnson read for the jury the 21 felony counts, including bribery, conflict of interest, perjury and embezzlement charges against the former commissioner. He has pleaded not guilty.

Gang crime fell sharply in the first half of the year in the San Fernando Valley, especially in North Hollywood, but homicides ticked up slightly, according to LAPD figures released Wednesday.Rachel Uranga in the Daily News.

While the dip in gang crime follows a six-year trend, the increase in homicides citywide was blamed on a spate of multiple killings early in the year.

LAPD Chief William Bratton vowed to turn the homicide numbers around by the end of the year.

"We fully project that they will be down significantly by the end of the year again," he said at a news conference.

Faced with being termed out next year, City Controller Laura Chick is once again talking about a possible return to the Los Angeles City Council. Daily News.

"I am taking a deep breath and looking at a return to the City Council," Chick said in an interview with Doug McIntyre on radio station KABC-AM (790).

Chick said she is still considering all of her options, including running for the 2nd Council District seat now held by Councilwoman Wendy Greuel. Greuel has announced she is running for Chick's office.

The contractor for software that left Los Angeles Unified School District with massive payroll problems is now bidding on a $1.5 billion contract to run California's court-case management system. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

And the bid has created an outcry after an oversight official said Deloitte Consulting LLP failed to disclose in its bid documents that it is in the middle of a dispute with LAUSD over the system that left thousands of teachers with inaccurate paychecks.

"I was surprised they didn't mention the LAUSD issue," said J. Stephen Czuleger, presiding judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court system.

California Highway Patrol Officer Leon Hines just about heard it all Tuesday. Adolfo Flores in the Daily News.

There was the driver who said he was violating California law by using a handheld cell phone because he'd been out of the country for three years and wasn't aware of the ban that took effect at midnight Tuesday.

Then there was the motorist who pleaded ignorance because they were from out of state.

Others simply admitted they answered their cell phones without using a hands-free device out of sheer habit.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat best known for his aggressive support of same-sex marriage, launched an exploratory committee Tuesday to consider a 2010 run for governor. Sacramento Bee.

Newsom, 40, became the first Democrat to take formal steps toward replacing Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"He's taking the steps to put together the type of operation that can analyze the race in 2010 and make an informed decision," said Newsom consultant Eric Jaye.

Councilwoman Janice Hahn has sent a letter to Los Angeles Fire Chief Douglas Barry asking him to reconsider the department's ban on visible tattoos.

The policy, enacted May 1, has frustrated some firefighters (like John O'Connor, pictured above) who wonder why they need to cover tattoos while working or sleeping in the fire house. LAFD officials have said their policy is aimed at maintaining a professional appearance both inside and outside the fire station.

But, Hahn sided with the inked-up firefighters.

"I, for one, do not care if a firefighter that is saving lives has visible tattoos. All that matters is that these men and women are trained well and prepared to do their jobs," Hahn wrote. "Requiring all tattoos to be covered at all times, including while firefighters are on their way to and from showers, just seems needless to me. As we enter the summer months, this seems almost cruel."

Riding the Red Line home last night, I noticed a familiar face getting on at the Civic Center station. Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.

No entourage. No press release announcing his transit ride. Just the supervisor boarding the subway like any other worker heading home for the night. Turns out he's been taking a bus/subway combination from his Westside home to his downtown office about two times a week.

Now, L.A. politicians are easy targets for criticism because they preach public transit but rarely take it. And when they do take it, their aides buy the tickets and the ride often becomes a photo-op. (Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa)

So Yaroslavsky's inconspicuous and regular riding habits are rather refreshing. The supervisor said he believes people should try to ride transit once a week, but he wants to practice what he preaches.

"I wanted to prove to myself that I can do it before I ask other people to do it," Yaroslavsky said. "Actually, I've gotten hooked on it. It's been easy."

And he's found that transit can be as fast or faster than driving. He can leave his office in the Hall of Administration downtown at 6:35 p.m., be on the Red Line at 6:45, hop off at Vermont and Beverly, catch the bus and arrive at his home by 7:10 p.m.

"I think it's a patriotic act. I just love the idea that my little old commute is denying OPEC a few bucks a day," Yaroslavsky said. "If a lot more people do that we're going to change the paradigm."

California lawmakers have missed the deadline to approve a state budget for the fiscal year that starts today.AP in the Daily News.

Republicans and Democrats in both houses of the Legislature remain far apart on how to close the state's $15.2 billion budget shortfall.

Republicans, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, favor wide-ranging cuts to services and programs. Democrats want to raise taxes by anywhere from $6 billion to $11 billion.

Lawmakers are constitutionally required to pass a budget by June 15 and give it to the governor to sign by July 1. That's happened only a dozen times over the last 30 years. The last time lawmakers passed a budget by June 15 was 1986.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa takes on one of the biggest challenges of his career today as his partnership to reform education formally begins working with some of Los Angeles' worst-performing schools. Daily News.

The Partnership for Los Angeles Schools initially will team up with Roosevelt High School and the Santee Education Complex as about 20,000 students return for the summer session.

But they will soon be followed by students at Hollenbeck, Stevenson, Gompers and Markham middle schools and Ritter, 99th, Figueroa and Sunrise elementary schools.

And the stakes are high for the five-year pilot reform effort to prove that urban school districts can succeed in a move that could further escalate calls to break up the nation's second-largest district.

In the first use of his recently granted power over Los Angeles' gang programs, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced the launch Monday of a late-night summer youth program at eight parks in the city, including one in the San Fernando Valley.Daily News.

Later this week, the Mayor's Office also is expected to announce contracts with six agencies to develop new prevention and intervention programs.

"Conventional wisdom will tell you the long hot summer months will bring more violence," Villaraigosa said in announcing the $1 million privately funded pilot parks program.